Transgendered LAT sports columnist Christine Daniels: interview

By Xeni Jardin at 8:17 am Thursday, Aug 16

A few months ago, I blogged about the story of an LA Times sports writer who announced -- by way of a newspaper column -- plans to transition from male to female.

This week, host Madeleine Brand on the NPR News program "Day to Day" (disclaimer: I'm a contributor to the show) did an amazing and extensive interview with the person who is now Christine Daniels.

Snip from transcript:

Madeleine Brand: And what was it about Christine that you liked so much?
Christine Daniels: Oh, there are a lot of things. An icon of mine – well, several icons of mine. One was Christine Jorgensen, who was the first high-profile transsexual in the late 1950s. I just think she had a – well, it's pretty obvious she had a lot of courage to do what she did when she did it.
Readers of my blog know that I'm a punk-rock girl. I love music, and especially the New Wave punk era. So The Pretenders and Chrissie Hynde – always a hero of mine. I still dig out that first album; I was playing that the other night.
Madeleine: There's that Siouxsee and The Banshees song.
Christine: And the Siouxsee and The Banshees –
Madeleine: [The song] "Christine."
Christine: Now you're reading my mind on this one. [Laughter.] Yeah, Christine. All my – a lot of my friends call me strawberry girl from the lyrics, you know. And also, being a sportswriter and having covered her – Chris Evert. Chris Evert was as tough a competitor, male or female, as you're going to want to find. So anyway, it's those four reasons. I guess it's pretty involved – and also a fifth reason: I just think Christine's pretty. (Chuckles.)

Link to full transcript and audio.

Here's Christine Daniels' sports blog: Link.

Daniels is also maintaining a more personal blog about her gender transition here: Link.

Here's the "coming out" column: Link.

Previously on BoingBoing:

LA Times journalist: "I am a transsexual sportswriter."

Update: Our pal Marty Cortinas at Wired says,

Christina (nee Chris) Kahrl went through the same thing as Penner/Daniels in 2003. She's a writer for Baseball Prospectus, a highly regarded group of baseball geeks. Link. Looks like she's been giving the other Chris some help: Link.